Idaya Husna Mohd

Factors Relating to Employee Engagement: A Case Study in a Selected Bank

Employees are expected to engage in the organization. They are employed based on their qualifications and experiences. To achieve the goals set by top management requires full commitment or engagement from the employees. Most organizations provide conveniences in the form of monetary reward or compensation, satisfactory working environment and work–life balance to all employees. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the relationship between these three conveniences being the variables for this study and the employees’ engagement. A survey was conducted using a set of questionnaires to collect data and analyzed using the SPSS. The population for the study were among the executives in a selected bank. The results revealed significant moderate relationship between work–life balance and employee engagement. The results support the literature and further suggestions are addressed.

From Perma To Permaig©: Happiness Instrument Development

Measuring the Happiness Index has become a crucial part of higher learning institutions’ strategic planning and policy making in paving the future. Therefore, developing and measuring the happiness instrument however is critical as it must be relevant to the context of the study in its own setting. Based on previous study, Seligman’s PERMA model was often adopted as a measurement of happiness index in the higher learning institutions. The PERMA Model, which was developed by Seligman in 2011 consist of Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaningful and Accomplishment. This article will explain further on the development of the happiness instruments used to determine the happiness index in a public organisation based on the KJ Method and Seligman’s PERMA Model. A focus group study was conducted using the staff of a public organisation in Malaysia. Therefore, by using Seligman’s PERMA model as a guide, the result of the focus group entails seven elements of measurements. The seven elements are Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaningful, Accomplishment, Infrastructure and Gratitude.

Reliability of happiness index model questionnaire

Happiness among employees at a workplace is highly regarded by the organizational top management as one of the fundamental sources of positive organizational outcomes. However, rather than as the major source of business success, happiness at work has always been seen as a small potential contributor towards positive organizational outcomes. Nowadays, happiness at work is important and relevant due to the demand of uncertain economic challenges and increased global organizational competition. Happiness Index questionnaire is a common and widely used tool for determining happiness among employees who work in an organization. This study has determined the reliability of Happiness Index questionnaire to a higher learning of institution’s employees. Happiness Index questionnaire were handed out to 9,654 employees of a higher learning institution. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was assessed to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The internal consistency was derived from 8 domains of Happiness Index instrument. The General domain was 0.856, Personal Emotion domain was 0.879, Engagement domain was 0.969, Relationship domain was 0.897, Meaning domain was 0.887, Accomplishment domain was 0.912, Infrastructure domain was 0.963, and finally, Gratitude domain was 0.924. The overall reliability for the whole domains (e.g., PERMAIg) was 0.85. The Happiness Index questionnaire was reliable in assessing the employee’s happiness at a higher learning institution.

Conceptualization of Happiness Index Model

Creating a happy environment among the employees of organizations is important including those working with the higher educational institutions. However, developing the right model and instrument to measure happiness is critical as they must be relevant to the context and setting of the study. Reviewing the existing work on the happiness index in higher educational institutions, most studies have adapted the PERMA model that was developed by Martin Seligman in 2011. The model comprises positive emotions that refer to hedonic feelings of happiness (e.g. feeling joyful, content, and cheerful), engagement that refers to psychological connection to activities or organizations (e.g. feeling absorbed, interested, and engaged in life), positive relationships that include feeling socially integrated, cared about and supported by others, and satisfied with one’s social connections, meaning that refers to believing that one’s life is valuable and feeling connected to something greater than oneself, and accomplishment that involves making progress toward goals, feeling capable to do daily activities, and having a sense of achievement. The results of the focus group study that was conducted indicate two additional dimensions of happiness emerged that include infrastructure that refers to the perception of staff on the maintenance and availability of the facilities in the organization and gratitude that refers to the levels of gratitude of staff on overall facilities and services offered of the organization.

How Work Environment affects the Employee Engagement in a Telecommunication Company

The purpose of this study is to explore the employee engagement which is predicted to be affected by rewards, work environment and work-life balance. This study also further investigates which factor (rewards, work environment and work-life balance) highly affects employee engagement. A quantitative survey questionnaire was developed which explores the behaviour, experiences, perspectives and feelings of respondents towards their engagement. Descriptive analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis were applied in this study to measure the relationships between independent and dependent variables. Based on data from the sample of 250 employees in a telecommunication organization in Klang Valley, work environment is the most influential factor that contributes towards employee engagement. This is followed by rewards and work-life balance consecutively.